Stephen Embleton

On Saturday 18 April 2026 I had the pleasure of being included in this excellent discussion, hosted by The British Fantasy Society : Language in SFFH – Origins & Culture. Thanks to our host Marve Michael Anson for the brilliant questions and gathering these perspectives and influences from Trinidad and Tobago, Hawai'i, Armenia, southern Africa and more. And for me it's always great to be able to speak about The Sauúti Collective's worldbuilding, especially in with language. Along with R.S.A Garcia, Shay Kauwe and Arkady Martine, we covered a range of areas including our various approaches to the creation or use of language when building a fictional culture or world. It was so good to get a variety of perspectives. Thanks again to Marve for including me   Our language is a reflection of who we are – the history, beliefs and values we hold – and the culture we live in. The same is true for the worlds we write. But where do you draw inspiration? How do you construct a lan...

  As always, I got an excellent brief from both the publisher, Mirari Press , and author, Lebogang Matseke. Lebo's notes on characters and clothing were essential – even down to Kgosi's sneakers! Love those sneakers. What set the tone for me was the description of the "storm goddess" Oya's dress – "ox-blood red blouse and a skirt composed of nine distinct coloured cloths, each panel carrying the memory of her lost children." This gave me the inspiration to use fabric textures throughout (including the frayed fabric for the "ground"), as well as challenging me to use SO MANY colours. This also meant the dress was going to add a visually dynamic, flowing aspect to the illustration – and using a right to left flow for Kgosi stepping from the real world into the Afterlife. Get your copy (not yet!) and find out more at Mirari Press. Death Rattle – 2026 Stephen Embleton As always, it begins with the roughest of rough design and layout sketch. You can...

  Thanks to Ainehi Edoro and Brittle Paper (from the start of this Sauúti journey) for this Sauúti Terrors feature and the opportunity to go into the Sauúti Collective more deeply.  🙏🏼🔥💫 We covered building a shared African sci-fi/fantasy world from scratch, the five planets, two suns, sound magic, and our Story Bible that lets writers step in and create. Read the full feature on Brittle Paper.

  WOW! Two of my cover illustrations made the BSFA long list for Best Artwork ! 🙏🏼 Made possible by creatively focused clients and authors = Magic ✨  Eugen Bacon’s The Nga’phandileh Whisperer (Stars and Sabers Publishing) Nerine Dorman’s The Company of Birds (Mirari Press) Eugen Bacon’s The Nga’phandileh Whisperer (Stars and Sabers Publishing) Nerine Dorman’s The Company of Birds (Mirari Press) Thank you to all who nominated. And congrats to my author friends and fellow artists who made all the categories!! BUY HERE: Eugen Bacon’s The Nga’phandileh Whisperer (Stars and Sabers Publishing) Nerine Dorman’s The Company of Birds (Mirari Press) #NoAI